Tawanda Karombo Harare
JOURNALISTS and media campaigners in Zimbabwe are up in arms with the country’s biggest telecoms operator, Econet Wireless after it raided a Reuters aligned news agency, The Source.
Econet Wireless was seeking to recover private e-mail conversations and documents stored on journalists’ laptops following a court order granted last week.
With the assistance of the sheriff’s office, information and communication technology experts from Econet Wireless saved documents stored on laptops belonging to journalists at The Source yesterday.
The raid follows two articles that were published by the local news agency.
The first article said banking group Steward Bank, which Econet owns, was seeking to recover a $2.1 million (R24.8m) loan owed by a wealthy businessman related to President Robert Mugabe.
The second article said Econet had advanced a $30m loan to the cash-strapped Zimbabwean government.
The $30m advancement to the government was reportedly brokered by former Econet chairman, Tawanda Nyambirai, who sold his controlling stake in Steward Bank, formerly TN Bank, to Econet founder and African telecommunications magnate, Strive Masiyiwa.
The raid has been described as an attack on media freedom in a country where journalists are frequently harassed and arrested.
Econet and Steward Bank are reportedly on a witch-hunt for the source that leaked the information, arguing that the communication was private and confidential.
Kumbirai Mafunda, chairperson of the Zimbabwe chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa, condemned the raid on The Source.
“Its a violation of media freedom and the right to media sources as guaranteed in the constitution of Zimbabwe. We believe there are amicable ways of solving disputes.”
Jacob Mafume, a Harare based lawyer, said the order that had been used in raiding the Harare based news agency was draconian. He said the order was based on a precedent in the famous Anton Piller case.
“An Anthon Piller order refers to a situation where there is need to protect certain evidence to make sure that certain evidence is not destroyed.
“The application… (is) done without notice to the respondent for fear that they will then destroy the evidence; it is often used in copyright cases,” said Mafume.
Econet had sought a court order to seize computers belonging to journalists at the news agency in search of documents it claimed had been stolen from the company.